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Automate calling options

Submitted by ob4icu on June 12, 2008 - 8:56am.

After using the service (and comparing to several other services out there), I have a couple of suggestions for you to consider:

Wouldn't it be great (for me and for EQO) if I could just dial the same way all the time? Wouldn't it be great if my phone would automatically and intelligently use (or not use) EQO out, without my manual intervention? Wouldn't it be great if I didn't have to decide when to turn on EQO?

1 - New feature idea: allow me to set some number sequences to always use EQO out, or conversely to set some number sequences to always use direct dial. I have an all-you-can-eat plan to fixed-line phones in a few countries. Therefore, I don't want to use EQO when I call those numbers. But I do want to use EQO out calls to mobile phone in those countries and to all phone numbers in other countries. Therefore I have to always think, should I use EQO or not? Sometimes I forget. As a result, I tend to keep EQO turned off in general, and only turn it on (if I remember) when I want to call mobile phones or phones outside my all-you-can-eat markets. This need-to-remember aspect is bad for me and bad for EQO. If I could just tell the software which calling method to use depending upon the first string of numbers, I could always dial using EQO without the need to think or remember.

2 - New feature idea: integrate the EQO out dialing directly into the operating system. Check out Truphone's implementation on Nokia phones. Play around with it. You'll find that it is nicely integrated directly into the OS (even the new Truphone Anywhere feature, which doesn't use VoIP), such that the user doesn't even notice whether they're using Truphone application or not. They just dial as normal, using their regular integrated address book, and it either automatically selects the dial method (depending upon user settings) or it presents the caller with the option after dialing. This may be more difficult for EQO to implement, because it's OS-specific and less portable. But it's worth taking a look and making an assessment. Integrating (rather than launching a completely independent application) would probably lead to more usage of the EQO out calling features.

[by the way, I'm a consultant in this sector, so feel free to contact me if you're interested.]

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Hi ob4icu, First off, let me

Submitted by gled on June 13, 2008 - 12:23pm.

Hi ob4icu,

First off, let me say that we really appreciate the feedback; the only way to make our service better is to solicit input from our users.

Cool idea, perhaps the same outcome could be achieved by adding a prompt to 'always use EQO-Out when calling 'contactname'? This would definitely require some further exploration, but on the surface I like it.

The concept of integrating more seamlessly into the native phonebook is something we've looked at a few times over the past several months. Your right however, that many phones would not support this as can be seen with Truphone, which only works on Nokia's higher-end Symbian handsets.

Thanks again,

Geoff

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Thanks for the reply. I

Submitted by ob4icu on June 17, 2008 - 4:51am.

Thanks for the reply. I understand that full integration is difficult (and nearly impossible on some handsets). However, I suspect there are options for better integration on nearly all handsets (e.g., dialing triggers EQO action). I'm sure your talented engineers can find clever solutions.

The first suggested feature idea, however, should be simpler to implement. I don't think that doing it by individual name is the answer. You don't want to require your customers make a lot of manual effort (I have over 250 contacts in my phone, and each has multiple phone numbers - some of which I might want to dial direct and others I might want to dial via EQO Out). Since dialing choices are dictated primarily based upon country and upon mobile vs. fixed, these can be addressed via initial dialing number strings (country code and prefix). So for example, if I have a calling plan that allows unlimited free calls to the US and to UK fixed lines, I would set +447@ (where @ is a wildcard) calls to always dial using EQO Out (mobile phones in the UK always start with +447), and I would set +1 and +44& (where & is a wildcard other than '7@' as defined in the "always use EQO Out" settings) calls to always dial direct. If you want to be really clever and user-friendly, you can just create a list of countries (including mobile and fixed for each country that has different rates for each) and let the customer select how they want EQO to behave for each of them.

Please feel free to drop me an email or phone call directly if you'd like to discuss this further. I'm based in France.

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